Petr Eben

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Petr Eben (born January 22, 1929 in Žamberk , Czechoslovakia ; † October 24, 2007 in Prague , Czech Republic ) was one of the leading contemporary composers in Czechoslovakia.

Life

Petr Eben spent his youth in Český Krumlov . There he studied the piano, later also the cello and the organ. At the age of ten he was already accompanying masses in church on the organ. The mother was a Catholic. The father of Jewish origin was a school inspector at a German elementary school. The initially sheltered childhood broke up with the German occupation in 1938 , initially with harassment, later with forced labor on the construction site and in the quarry. The grandmother was deported to the Theresienstadt concentration camp at the age of 80 , where she, like most of the father's family, perished. In 1944 the father was also deported. Petr and his brother Bedrich were deported to Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945 . All three survived. In 1948 Petr Eben was accepted into the Prague Academy of Music, where he studied piano with František Rauch and composition with Pavel Bořkovec .

In 1955 he got a lectureship at the Music History Institute of Charles University in Prague . 1978-1979 he had a teaching assignment for composition at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester . The decades up to 1989 were not easy for Petr Eben either. Most of its world premieres took place abroad. Not until 1990 did he become professor of composition at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and president of the Prague Spring Festival . The Prague Te Deum 1989 , which premiered in 1991, is a thank you for the newfound freedom. As an artist he was also active with his own performances, especially as an improvising pianist and organist, but the focus of his work was always on composing.

Petr Eben a variety wrote different works of various genres, such as the oratory Apologia Socratus , the ballet blessing and a curse (Kletby a dobrořečení written for the Holland Festival 1983), the symphonic orchestral works night hours (Noční hodiny) and Prague Nocturne (Pražské Nokturno, for the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg), the 2nd organ concert for the inauguration of the new organ of the Wiener Funkhaus , the Mass Missa cum populo for the Avignon Festival , the oratorio Holy Symbols (Posvatna znameni) for the Salzburg Cathedral, as well as the church opera Jeremias , the German-language translation of which was premiered in 2000 in Chemnitz as part of the Central Europe Festival.

In 2001 Eben was awarded the European Church Music Prize.

Works for organ solo

  • Sunday music (composed 1957–1958. Bärenreiter Editio Supraphon, Prague 1963):
    • Fantasia I
    • Fantasia II
    • Moto ostinato
    • final
  • Laudes (composed 1964. United Music Publishers, London 1979):
    • largo
    • Lento
    • Fantastico
    • Engravings
  • Ten chorale preludes (composed in 1971. Editio Bärenreiter, Prague 2001):
    • Hence the day's appearance
    • Well, you who are hungry
    • I already thank you through your son
    • In Natali Domino
    • The sun is shining down below
    • Jesus' cross, suffering and torment
    • Sun of righteousness
    • All are blessed
    • The night has come
    • Praise God confidently with singing
  • Two chorale fantasies (composed in 1972. Pro Organo, Leutkirch 1987):
    • O Bože veliký
    • Svatý Václave
  • Small chorale partita about "O Jesus, you are all of my life" (composed 1978. Universal Edition, Vienna 1980)
  • Faust (composed 1979–1980. United Music Publishers, London 1983):
    • I. Prolog
    • II. Mystery
    • III. Song of the lyre man
    • IV. Easter choirs
    • V. Student songs
    • VI. Gretchen
    • VII. Requiem
    • VIII. Walpurgis Night
    • IX. epilogue
  • Mutationes for one or two organs (composed 1980. Universal Edition, Vienna 1983):
    • I. Impetuoso
    • II. Allegretto
    • III. Veemente
    • IV. Scherzando
    • V. Rapsodico
    • VI. Grazioso
    • VII. Duo (Agitato)
  • Versetti (composed 1982. Vienna: Universal Edition, Vienna 1985):
    • I. Ad Offertory
    • II. Ad Communionem super "Adoro Te"
  • A Festive Voluntary : Variations on "Good King Wenceslas" (composed 1986. United Music Publishers, London 1987)
  • Job for organ and speaker (composed 1987. United Music Publishers, London 1989):
    • I. Destiny
    • II. Faithfulness of opinion
    • III. Acceptance of sorrow
    • IV. Longing for death
    • V. Despair and resignation
    • VI. Secret of creation
    • VII. Repentance and Knowledge
    • VIII. God's reward
  • Homage to Dietrich Buxtehude . Toccatenfuge (composed 1987. Schott, Mainz 1987)
  • Due preludi festivi (composed 1990-91. Pro Organo, Leutkirch 1994)
  • Four Biblical Dances (composed 1992. United Music Publishers, London 1993):
    • I. David's dance in front of the ark
    • II. Dance of the Shulamite
    • III. Dance of Jephtha's daughter
    • IV. The wedding at Cana
  • Amen - it will come true . Choral Fantasy (composed 1993. Möseler, Wolfenbüttel 1998)
  • Momenti d'organo (composed 1994. Pro Organo, Leutkirch 1994)
  • Hommage à Henry Purcell (composed 1995. Schott, Mainz 1995)
  • Campanae gloriosae (composed 1999. Schott, Mainz 2000)
  • Triptych (composed 2000. Müller & Schade, Bern 2001)
  • Gloria (Mainz: Schott, 2001)
  • Evangelical chorales from the Chancellery of the Bohemian Brothers : Choral arrangements and improvisation models (Universal Edition, Vienna 2002):
    • Sing the praises of our God
    • Oh light, holy trinity (It is therefore the day's shine)
    • Oh come to us, longed-for Christian
    • God's son has come
    • Rejoice in Christ the King, daughter from Sion
    • Rejoice, earth and stars, Hallelujah
    • Christ, Lord, Eternal Son of God
    • The holy Christian has risen (Praise be to God in the highest throne)
    • Well, truly repentant people
    • How dear to me are the apartments of heaven
    • Most gracious Lord Jesus
    • Wake up Christians all
  • The labyrinth of the world and the paradise of the heart for organ and speaker (composed 2003. Panton International, Prague / Mainz 2003):
    • I. Prolog
    • II. Look at the world
    • III. Masks
    • IV. The arrows of death
    • V. The sweet chains of love
    • VI. The festival of the academia
    • VII. The ignorance of the learned
    • VIII. The wheel of Mrs. Fortuna
    • IX. The iniquity of the human race
    • X. The False Promise of the Golden Age
    • XI. Vanity over vanity
    • XII. Horror and swoon
    • XIII. The homecoming to God
    • XIV. Epilogue
  • Happy birthday . Prelude (Schott, Mainz 2004)
  • Improvisation on a Slovak song of Mary (Pro Organo, Leutkirch 2004)
  • Heavenly Nightingale : Seven Pieces (Pro Organo, Leutkirch 2004):
    • Hail, you sea star
    • Where should we flee to?
    • Most gorgeous woman in the whole world
    • Rejoice through [sic], virgin
    • Mother of God
    • Mary, mother of graces

Selection of other works

  • Missa adventus et quadragesimae , 1952
  • Organ Concerto No. 1 , 1954
  • Hořká hlína (Bitter Earth) , cantata, 1959–60
  • Piano concerto , 1960–61
  • Ordinarium missae , 1966
  • Apologia Socratus , Oratorio, 1967
  • Truvérská mše , Mass, 1968–69
  • Vox clamantis , 1969
  • Pragensia , cantata, 1972
  • Noční hodiny (Night Hours) , Symphony, 1975
  • Faust , incidental music, 1976
  • Okna podle Marca Chagalla (window after Marc Chagall) , 1976, four movements for trumpet and organ
  • Hamlet , incidental music, 1976–77
  • Pocta Karlu IV. , Cantata, 1978
  • Missa cum populo , 1982
  • Kletby a dobrořečení , ballet, 1983
  • Organ Concerto No. 2 , 1983
  • Cantico delle Creature , 1987
  • Prager Te Deum 1989 (for mixed choir, 4 brass instruments, timpani and percussion or organ)
  • Posvátná znamení , Oratorio, 1992–93
  • Proprium festivum monasteriense , hymn, 1993
  • Rhythmus de gaudiis Paradisi , text based on Thomas Kempensis (1380–1471), 1995
  • Jeremias , Opera, 1996-97

Recordings

Most of Eben's works have been published on the Czech label Supraphon . The Norwegian organist Halgier Schiager has released five CDs of Eben's organ music on the Hyperion label . In cooperation with the composer, the complete works for organ solo by the German organist Gunther Rost were published on the Motette label . Gert Westphal acts as a reciter of the two cycles Job and The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart . On the OehmsClassics label , Gunther Rost published the two concerts for organ and orchestra with the Bamberg Symphony under the direction of Gabriel Feltz , Okna ( window ) for organ and trumpet with Tine Thing Helseth and landscapes by Pathmos for organ and percussion with Babette Haag . In the series "The King of Instruments" (Priory Records), the English organist Gillian Weir played the moto ostinato from Eben's Sunday music . Occasional recordings have also been preserved in which the composer plays his own organ works or improvisational early versions of the same.

literature

  • Dominik Skala:  Petr Eben. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 29, Bautz, Nordhausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-88309-452-6 , Sp. 369-376.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Rainer Mohrs: Clairvoyance of Thought. Petr Eben's cantata "Cusanus Meditation" premiered , in: Musica sacra 121, 2003, 16-17.
  • Kateřina Vondrovicová: Yes , Petr . In: Ludwig Finscher (Ed.): MGG . tape 6 . Bärenreiter Verlag, 2001, Sp. 9-13 .
  • Kateřina Vondrovicová: Petr Eben. Life and work . Schott Mainz et al. 2000, ISBN 3-7957-0378-6 , (with catalog raisonné).
  • Graham Melville-Mason (Ed.): A Tribute to Petr Eben. To mark his 70th birthday year . Dvořák Society, Burnham-on-Crouch 2000, ISBN 0-9532769-1-0 , ( The Dvořák Society Occasional publications 2), (With discography).
  • Janette Fishell: The Organ Music of Petr Eben . University Microfilms International, Ann Arbor MI 1988, (Northwest Univ. IL, Diss., 1988).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Hans Haselböck : Concert Hall Organs in Vienna (PDF; 566 kB) . In: Ars organi, Volume 60, Issue 2, June 2012, p. 92.
  2. ↑ http://classical-music-online.net/en/production/22734

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Exactly, Petr
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech composer
DATE OF BIRTH January 22, 1929
PLACE OF BIRTH Žamberk
DATE OF DEATH October 24, 2007
Place of death Prague